Yakusoku no Kokoro
by Last Sakurazukamori
Summary: Kagome's friends are dead. But can the jewel bring them back? (Sequel to 'Yakusoku.')
1. Picking Up the Pieces

AN: This is the sequel to my infamous fanfic, "Yakusoku." If you haven't read it, I suggest you read it before you read this one, because, after all, this is its sequel. You will have to read it before you can understand anything in this fanfic anyway. This fanfic isn't quite as sad as its predecessor, in fact, it's much, much happier because, well, that would just give away the plot. ;)  
  
Disclaimer: Inuyasha does not belong to me, it belongs to the genius known as Rumiko Takahashi. I'm just using them for my own evil and sadistic purposes, because I'm evil and sadistic like that.   
  
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YAKUSOKU NO KOKORO  
  
Chapter 1: Picking Up the Pieces  
  
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Four months past, but Kagome still woke up during the middle of the night, screaming. Everything that had meant anything to her had abruptly come to a halt that day four months ago; her friends, her reason for living, and the one she had loved above all others, had all died. That boy (or at least he looked like a boy, he was in reality over fifty years old) with long, white hair, beautiful golden eyes, and strange ears that sat on the top of his head still haunted her dreams, telling her the same thing he had told her that night before it had all ended over and over again. "I promise, Kagome. I won't die." Then the dream ended as it always did, his blood raining on both of them as he walked away until she couldn't see him anymore, and she woke up screaming. Kagome heard her mother's running footsteps outside the door seconds before the door swung open. "It's the same nightmare as last night," she said, wiping her tears away with the bottom edge of her nightshirt. "It's nothing, It's just..."  
  
"Losing somebody you loved very much is very painful," Mrs. Higurashi said as she walked over to her bed and sat on it, "It was the same thing with me when your father died." Kagome looked up, she had never heard her mother talk about their father since he had died. The black-haired girl could barely remember when it happened, she was just a little girl when it happened, but she did remember that they had been told he had died in a car accident. Mrs. Higurashi held her daughter to her chest and rested her chin on her head. "I felt as if I wouldn't be able to go on, I felt as if I were being ripped up inside. It was a terrible feeling."  
  
"It's not the same, Mother," Kagome said. Her father had died in a car accident, there was nothing her mother could do about that, but Inuyasha had been murdered by her own arrow. She hadn't meant to; she was aiming at Naraku, but he had been controlling Inuyasha at the time and he made him stand in front of him and take his place in death. In the end, it didn't matter, because Kagome had still killed Naraku, but the fact still remained that Inuyasha was dead and she, in all technicalities, had killed him. "You didn't kill our father, but I killed Inuyasha."  
  
"You did not kill Inuyasha," Mrs. Higurashi countered.  
  
"Yes, I did! It was my arrow that killed him! If I had never let my arrow fly, he would still be alive!" Kagome screamed, and she flung herself onto her bed, sobbing as she lost herself in her bedsheets.  
  
Ms. Higurashi stood up and said, "No, I don't know what you're feeling, everybody feels differently about what happens to them, but my husband still died, and I felt somewhat like you do now. I, too, felt that I had killed him, I felt that I could have stopped him, should have stopped him, from going out that day. But then I realized that there was no way that I was to know that he would get into a car accident, and there was nothing I could do about it." She turned around and left the room, closing the door quietly behind her. Kagome looked up, her eyes red and her cheeks stained with dried tears, and pulled off her bedsheets. She pulled herself up into a sitting position.  
  
"It was all because of that stupid jewel. If that jewel had never been ripped out of my body, if I had never gone to that time, Inuyasha would still be alive. But then, if I had never gone, I would have never met him. If the jewel had never been ripped out of me, we would have never gotten together. What is the purpose of this jewel? Is it to give its holder what they desire? Inuyasha had wanted to be completely demon, and the jewel would have made him that way. He once wanted to be completely human, and the jewel would have made him that way too. It would have given Naraku whatever he wanted it for, and it would have given all those other demons who wanted it what they wanted it for. It gave Kohaku life. But what I want is for Inuyasha to be alive again, for the others to be alive again. Would it grant me that desire too?" Kagome pondered out loud. "I have to find out." She scrambled out of bed and threw on the clothes she had been wearing the past few days, stuffed a few things into her yellow bag, and creeped out of the house past her mother. Then she ran to where the old well had been covered up, ripped the boards off, and straddled its railing.  
  
"This had better be true," Kagome said, "You had better be coming back to me, Inuyasha." She pulled her other leg over the railing and dropped into the well's depths.  
  
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AN: Now that you've read it (if you did read it), will you review it? Please? I'll give you a cookie if you do! Okay, so it would be a browser cookie, but still... 


	2. Rememberance

AN: The italics hate me and so does ff.net, so I don't have any italics here. Instead, I have "/these/" to symbolize what was supposed to be italicized. And there are alot of stuff that should be italicized in this particular chapter too. I would like it to be italicized too, so live with it.  
  
Disclaimer: "Inuyasha" and its characters do not belong to me, but to the incredible genius that is Rumiko Takahashi. I'm merely borrowing them for my own evil and sadistic purposes, because I'm evil and sadistic like that.  
  
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Yakusoku no Kokoro, Chapter 2: Rememberance  
  
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Kagome climbed out of the old well on the other side of the timeline, pulling herself up and over the edge of the well. She dropped her bag onto the ground beside her feet and sat on the well, looking around herself. This time was no different than what it had been four months ago, when she had left it, fled from it, because it had reminded her so much of Inuyasha she couldn't bear it. In fact, as soon as she had set foot on the soft, springy grass, the memory of Inuyasha had assaulted her mind. All the times she spent with him mingled into one, but the most prominent was his head, lying in her arms, his blood staining her white shirt red. His eyes, staring up at Kagome without seeing her face.  
  
The girl stood up and shook her head, as if her mind was an etch-a-sketch she wanted to erase. She grabbed her bag and swung it over her shoulder and secured it, and readied herself for a long and painful journey to the very place Inuyasha had died. She doubted the almost completed jewel would still be there, it was more than likely a demon who had been drawn to its power took it. But it wasn't too far away, and a voice at the back of her mind said that it might still be there, and that if she could find the last remaining piece, she could bring Inuyasha, Sango, Miroku, and Shippou back to her, and maybe Kohaku too, for Sango.  
  
Kagome pulled her bike out of the well, which she had left there four months ago, distraught about Inuyasha's death. She straddled it and took off, pedalling as fast as she could, towards the field that had been turned into a battlefield. As she rode, memories of that day four months ago and the night before raced through her mind. Tears came to the corners of her eyes and she beat at the pedals with her feet, harder and harder, trying to pound her memories away. They came to her in a rush. Each of them mingling with another, time played no part as they melded into one horrible thought.  
  
/An arrow arched through the air and struck its mark, ripping through the flesh and severing the head from its body. Kagome had thought it was Naraku, but then she looked at the head, now staring up at the heavens with blank, unseeing eyes. Naraku didn't have long, white hair, yellow eyes, and cute dog ears that sat on the top of his head, but Inuyasha did. And the severed head, leaking blood into the already red grass, had all three of these features.  
  
"That was a good shot. You almost hit me, but you just forgot one minor thing. Inuyasha would do anything for me, even die for me if I asked him to."  
  
"That is none of your business, but I'll tell you anyway. It was quite simple really, all I had to do was touch his face and he became a part of me. He's mine now, and the only way you can get him back is to kill me."  
  
"Stay back, Kagome! Inuyasha told me to keep you out of this battle, so I will. Let me handle this. I've been chasing Naraku for too long, now it's time for this chase to stop."  
  
"I won't die, Kagome. I promise. I will stay alive for you."  
  
Kagome screamed and grabbed at the blood-soaked earth with her hands, bringing clumps of red grass and dirt darkened with blood to her face. Tears streamed from her eyes and ran across her cheeks, leaving streaks through her dirty face behind. Then she stood up, her eyes burning with hatred for Naraku and the confusion of a broken mind. Another arrow cut through the air and then flesh, but this time the head had wavy, brown hair and red eyes.  
  
"You should go to bed, Kagome," Inuyasha said, and he looked away, looking as if he'd rather pick a fight with a hundred demons then tell Kagome how he felt. "You need to get your rest, tomorrow is the big day, the final battle between us and Naraku. Go to bed, I'll be in after you."  
  
"I won't die, Kagome. I promise."/  
  
Kagome came to a stop at the field. It was no longer stained with blood, the rain during the last few months probably washed it all away. The jewel was probably washed away with the rest of the debris that had littered the once beautiful field; she had noticed Naraku's body and the little bits of clothing that had been ripped during the battle were both gone. Despite the voice in the back of her mind, which was now telling her that the jewel was definitely not here, she jumped off her bike and walked to a spot of turned earth, the place she had buried Inuyasha the day he had died. Kagome knelt beside his grave and began searching for anything that would mark the location of the jewel; a glint of the sun shining on glass or an indent in the grass. She looked there for an hour, around the four graves of her friends, and even where Naraku had fallen, but she didn't find anything.  
  
She straightened up and brushed the dirt off her skirt, then returned to her bike. She climbed back onto it and rode off again, this time heading for Kaede's village, hoping that the priestess had gotten wind of what happened there at the field and got to the jewel before anything else did. With every push to the pedals that drove her further and further from the desecrated field, the painful memories pounding in Kagome's head ebbed away until there was only one left.  
  
/The rain fell on both of them, the red rain that stained Inuyasha's hair as he waved to Kagome and turned to walk away. Kagome watched Inuyasha's retreating back until she could no longer see it, then she stood alone in the bloody rain. She looked at her hands, and with a choked gasp, she realized that she was cradling Inuyasha's severed head in them. But the head wasn't bleeding, and Kagome realized that the blood raining on her was Inuyasha's. Inuyasha's blood was raining on her, drowning her, and Kagome screamed./  
  
She screamed and screamed, and even as she lost control of her bike and it fell over, flinging her to the grass beside the small trail she had made, she still screamed. The dream that had haunted her every night since Inuyasha died had returned, but it had gone a step further. Kagome brought her scraped knees to her chest and sobbed into them until her eyes ran dry. Then she pushed herself up from the ground, grabbed her bike and checked it for any damage, and when she didn't find any, she remounted it and continued her ride to see Kaede, hoping with all her heart that she had gotten to it before the demons.  
  
/"Kikyou once told me that if the jewel was used for good instead of evil, then it would cease to exist. Keh, as if anyone would want to use it for that, their hearts are all tained with want and greed."  
  
"If you ever died, I want... I want to bring you back."  
  
"Stupid girl, why would you want something like that?"  
  
"Because I love you, Inuyasha."  
  
Kagome got a brief glimpse of the blush that had spread across Inuyasha's face before he turned around, crossed his arms, and shouted, "Keh!"  
  
I love you, Inuyasha./  
  
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Now that you've read this fanfic (if you did read it), please review it? After all, authors like getting feedback on their stories, you know. I might be evil and sadistic, but that doesn't mean I don't like being praised or helped by constructive criticism. However, if you criticize me for no reason except to criticize me, I might mistake you for my mom's husband and kill you, uh, yeah.  
  
Plugs: Go read TailFluffGirl's fanfics if you haven't read them yet, now. She's my freaking cool beta and a freaking cool author, and I will spork your eyes out if you don't read them! Okay, okay, so I won't spork your eyes out; that's a fate only for my mom's husband. :D 


	3. All Over Again

Author's Notes: After a long haitus, I'm finally back with the third chapter of Yakusoku no Kokoro! You see, school really does have a purpose. ;) The "/" around text that's supposed to be italicized still stands for this chapter.  
  
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Yakusoku no Kokoro, Chapter 3: All Over Again  
  
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Kagome skidded to a halt in front of Kaede's hut, her tires throwing up dirt as she slid across the hard-packed ground. She hopped off her bike and let it crash against the wall. Kaede, who was inside, heard the bike falling against her hut and poked her head out through the reed curtain that served as her door.  
  
"Kagome!" she exclaimed, surprised to see the white and green schoolgirl fuku that stood Kagome apart from any other girl Kaede knew. She hadn't seen that fuku in almost four months, and she was starting to miss it. Actually, she had already been missing it; and Kagome, and Inuyasha, and the others. She still didn't know the horrible fate that had befallen the other four so many months ago.  
  
Kagome turned around when she heard her name called. "Kaede," she said breathlessly, trying not to cry at the sight of the old woman's face. She had always considered Kaede a part of the group- the only one left, besides herself- and the way the woman's head stuck out her door reminded Kaome of Inuyasha. "Kaede, I need to tell you something."  
  
Kaede stepped out of her hut and pushed back the reed curtain. She motioned for Kagome to go inside and said, "Come in. We'll talk in here." She smiled at Kagome as the girl walked past, and Kagome smiled back, despite the tears forming in her eyes. Once they were both inside, they sat across from each other on opposite sides of the fire ring in the center of the hut. A fire was going inside the ring and a pot was sitting over top it; Kaede was cooking dinner when the crash of Kagome's bike interrupted her. The two women were silent as Kaede finished her cooking and ladled out enough soup for both of them.  
  
After Kaede took several spoonfuls of her soup, she left the spoon in her bowl and looked up again at Kagome. The girl was just staring into her bowl; she hadn't even taken a sip yet. Whatever Kagome wanted to tell the older woman was weighing heavily on her mind. Kaede set her bowl aside. "Would you like to tell me now?" she asked.  
  
Kagome sighed and also set her bowl down. "I don't know if you know already, but," she took a deep breath, "Inuyasha, Miroku, Sango, and Shippou... everyone's dead."  
  
Kaede gasped. She brought her right hand to her mouth, which hung open in shock. "When- when did this happen?"  
  
"Four months ago. Between us and Naraku, we had gathered all the shards of the shikon jewel. Naraku agreed to come out and fight us himself, but only because he thought- no, had- developed a technique that would give himself an advantage over us. He took over Inuyasha's mind and had him kill Shippou first, then Miroku, and then Sango. I tried to kill Naraku with one of my arrows, but Inuyasha took the hit for him. It... I decapitated him and killed him. In the end, I managed to kill Naraku, but it doesn't matter anymore... the others are still dead."  
  
Kagome sniffled and wiped the tears from her eyes with the left sleeve of her fuku. She was not about to let herself cry again; she had to be strong- for herself, and for those who had died. She didn't think she had any more tears left anyway. "I left the shikon jewel, the completed shikon jewel, at the battlefield. I didn't want it then. Did you, by any chance, pick it up? It wasn't there."  
  
As soon as Kaede started shaking her head, Kagome felt her mind shatter. It was almost as if Inuyasha had died all over again. /Why did I let myself get so happy over the possibility that Kaede would have found it before anything else did? It really wasn't possible at all. I think my eyes are starting to burn.../  
  
"NO!" She shouted it; maybe it would have more effect on herself out loud than in her mind, because the latter sure wasn't working. "I won't cry!" But even has she said that, she felt herself breaking down into tears as Inuyasha's lost voice echoed from her memories.  
  
/"I promise, Kagome. I won't die."/  
  
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Read and review. We authors always like to get praises, and sometimes even constructive criticism. So bring it on! :D We don't like to get unconstructive criticism though, Mom's husband! 


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